Intercultural Interaction

SHSND A4365

Interaction between various cultures occurred in what is now North Dakota long before the era of white settlement. Among the American Indians were many different languages, customs, and traditions. The Metis of the northern Red River Valley are descendents of intermarriage between American Indians and French and British fur traders. The Selkirk Colony, also of the northern Red River Valley, was a Scots-Irish settlement. Missionaries came to North Dakota during the early fur trading era, introducing American Indians to Christianity. These attempts at assimilation through religion continued into the reservation era. Europeans also introduced diseases that American Indians had never come in contact with before, such as smallpox. Disease decimated tribes along the Missouri River.